Starting Fresh
by MandaMania
Summary: After moving to New York, Marissa sees someone whom she never thought she'd see again. Alex Kelly. How'll things go for the two former lovers when they meet up? Malex. AN up.
1. Move On

"Marissa, honey, you're going to miss your flight!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Marissa said as she stumbled down the steps trying to put her shoes on.

"You know kiddo, you should have taken more of your clothes to the apartment when we went to New York last month. You've got a lot of stuff to carry," he said with a smirk on his face.

"I know Dad...but I just didn't want to run out of clothes," she said as she reached the last stair, her suitcases tumbling down after her.

"So, are you ready to go?" Jimmy said with a bit of sadness in his voice.

"Yeah, I think so. Let me go tell Meredith bye."

"Okay. I'll go ahead and start taking these suitcases out to the car," he replied. He looked down at the suitcases, all four of them, and immediately had an overwhelmed look on his face. He tried to carry all four of them at once, grabbing the handles of the biggest two ready to roll them out and put the other two duffle bags around each of his shoulders. Marissa just looked on and started cracking up laughing when he took his first step forward and started swaying back and forth, the weight being too much for him to handle.

After almost falling to the floor, he dropped all of the bags and then picked up one duffle back and one of the rolling suitcases and began taking them out to the car.

"I guess I'll just make two trips…" he mumbled.

Marissa laughed again, and then started walking towards the kitchen.

"Well…I guess its about time for me to go," she said to the other brunette's back.

The older woman turned the pot of chicken alfredo that was on the stove down and turned around to Marissa. She walked over to her and took her into a warm embrace.

"Do you really have to go? You know, you could always stay her and work for your Da-ad," she smiled and sang the last part, trying to tempt Marissa.

"I think it's time for me to get out of you guys' hair. Be out on my own. Make a life for myself, you know," Marissa told her sadly.

"Yeah, I guess I do. But I still hate to see you leave. I'm gonna miss you so much. It's just not going to be the same around here without you. You've become like a daughter to me. Promise you won't forget about us?" she said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Aw, I could never forget about you two. You know that Mer. I promise I will come back every chance I get to visit you guys. I love you," Marissa told her stepmother, tears starting to pour onto her cheeks as well.

When Marissa arrived to Hawaii to help her dad manage yachts, or whatever you want to call it, and found out that Jimmy had a girlfriend, she was not at all pleased. She was hoping that she would be able to spend a lot of time with her dad and become as close as they once were. She didn't see how they could do that if he had a girlfriend hanging around all of the time. Marissa pictured her being something like her own mother was years ago, and already did not like this new woman. That is, until she actually met her.

When they arrived home from the airport and walked through the door to Jimmy's new beachfront, 5 bedroom home, Marissa was blown away. The house was amazing, and not quite as extravagant as the homes in Orange County, which is exactly what she loved about the house. It was decorated simply, but beautiful nonetheless. The wall at the back of the house was made of glass windows and French doors that looked out onto the ocean. It felt like a home. And Marissa could picture herself living there for the next few years. But she grew confused as she heard someone in the kitchen and smelt food, which made her stomach growl as soon as the smell entered her nostrils. It smelt heavenly. And she knew it wasn't just take-out. She walked into the kitchen and directly into a woman with dark brown hair who looked to be about 35-40. The woman was in a hurry to get somewhere and slammed right into her.

"_Wait a second…this woman is living here with Dad! Well...isn't this just fucking great. I thought I had escaped all of that," _Marissa thought bitterly.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!!" The woman replied, "are you okay??"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she nodded and put on her best fake smile. _"Here we go," _she thought.

"It's so great to finally meet you! Your dad has told me so many good things about you!" she said as she grabbed Marissa and brought her into a hug.

Marissa just stood there, too surprised to move, until finally she returned the hug. "Yeah, it's good to meet you too…." she drew the word out, realizing that she didn't actually know the woman's name.

"Oh I'm sorry! I didn't even introduce myself!" she said sticking out her hand, "Meredith White."

"It really is nice to meet you," Marissa said while shaking her hand. _"Hmm, she doesn't seem bad at all. God I hope this isn't an act or something. I guess only time will tell."_

"This all looks really good! I mean…wow!" she said once she looked over to the dinner table, which held many plates of food. There was enough food there to feed the whole state of Hawaii. "Did you cook all of this??" she asked amazed.

"Thank you, and…yeah…I did," she said, a bit of embarrassment showing in her voice and a sheepish smile on her face. "I wasn't sure what you liked…so I just made a bit of everything." She felt like an idiot for making so much food.

"Oh, I'm sure that all of this will be perfectly fine. I'll eat pretty much anything!" Marissa giggled, still wide-eyed at all of the food in front of her. She mentally prepared a list in her head of what she was going to eat first.

"Oh thank god! Now I finally have someone to try out some recipes on. I love to cook new things but I can't because Jimmy won't eat hardly anything. He is just too picky!" she joked while poking Jimmy in the ribs. He laughed and put his hands in the air as if to say he was innocent.

"Hey! I eat a lot of stuff. I just don't like onions!"

"Yeah, or mushrooms, mustard, tomatoes, black and green olives, cucumbers, spinach, pretty much any kind of bean except for the French style green beans in the can, salmon…I mean, who _doesn't _like salmon?!" she exclaimed being dramatic. She was really just messing around with Jimmy.

"Dad, you don't like salmon? I love salmon!" Marissa joined in.

"I know! Me too!" Meredith said.

"Okay this is so unfair!" Jimmy stated. "You two are just ganging up on me." he pouted.

"Aw, but I think it's fun. Don't you Marissa?"

"Definitely. But hey," Marissa continued laughing, "anytime you need a guinea pig for your food…I'm here."

"Great. Well…shall we dig in?" Meredith said.

"We shall." Marissa agreed. "_Ok, so she is nothing like my mom. She's so nice and sweet. I'm really starting to like her. Thank god."_ Marissa thought, relieved.

After that first night, Meredith and Marissa were constantly hanging out. Meredith showed her around the state while Jimmy was working and told her a little bit about herself.

She originally came from Northern California, but moved to Hawaii because she was ready for a change, much like Jimmy. She met him a few months after moving there, and soon they moved in together. Marissa could tell that they really loved each other, which is why it was no surprise to her when her dad told her that he was planning on proposing to Meredith. (This was about 6 months after Marissa moved there) Marissa was really happy for the two. But what did surprise her was when Meredith asked her to be her Maid of Honor. She, of course, said yes though.

After living there for a year, she loved it and wasn't ready to leave yet. She then decided that she would attend The University of Hawaii. Jimmy and Meredith were more than happy for her to stay, and even though she missed everyone in Newport, she felt like that was what _she _wanted to do, instead of what everyone else wanted.

Sometimes when she was feeling homesick, she would go to her room and get all of her pictures out and look through them for hours. She still kept in touch with everyone from back home, even Ryan. She realized that they were better as friends, and that was all. But one night when she was looking through her pictures, she came across a large book, pretty much a scrapbook, that had concert tickets, little notes saying that the person was going to the store and would be back in 5, band stickers and the sleeves from cd cases (the little book that usually has the lyrics in it), and many pictures from about 2 years ago. But the pictures weren't just any old pictures, and neither was the scrapbook. Everyone of the pictures had a certain blonde haired, tattooed beauty in them. Alex.

Marissa missed the blonde, she didn't even try to deny it. Even though the two didn't have a very long relationship, Alex meant more to Marissa than anyone. Even Ryan. Alex understood her, didn't try to change her, and was always there for her. She dropped her "bad ass" attitude when she was around Marissa and was nothing but loving towards her. She wanted things to work out so badly, and Marissa did too, but was just too scared.

Marissa went back to Alex's apartment two days after that tragic night at the bonfire. But Alex wasn't there. Marissa wanted to apologize so badly, tell her that she was just scared but that she wanted to be with her and that she wasn't scared anymore. But Alex left. So Marissa just assumed that Alex really didn't want to be with her. After all, she was still in school, and Alex was living a life of freedom, no parents, no rules, she just did whatever she wanted to do. So, Marissa guessed, Alex was really better off without her. But that still didn't keep her from laying in bed crying and moping for the next week. Summer was the only one that knew about all of it. But eventually, Marissa decided that it really was over, Alex wasn't going to come back. So she fell back into her old life…the way things were before Alex came. And that meant Ryan.

Marissa realized that she didn't have feelings for Ryan anywhere near as strong as she used to. But she just wanted someone to be there with her, to cure her from her loneliness. And that's what Ryan was there for. So she got back together with him.

Then, after the whole ordeal with Trey, everything went downhill. It was like they didn't even talk anymore, didn't even know each other. So they broke it off. Then Marissa was back to square one.

She was lonely again. Johnny, her new friend at Newport Union, helped, but she just didn't feel that way for him, so as much as she could tell he wanted to hook up, she never did. Then she got back into Harbor. Which was good, because she missed everybody. Well...Summer and Seth. And then that Volchek guy wanted to hook up with her. I mean, he was hot, very hot, but Marissa wouldn't have anything to do with him.

So up comes college time. Marissa had no idea what to do. She really felt like she needed a break from everything, and then a letter from her dad came in the mail. He wanted her to come to Hawaii and stay with him. She gladly accepted.

Four years and a Fashion Design degree later, here she is. After graduating college, she got an offer to work for Steven Mercado, one of the best up and coming designers. But his store was located in New York, so she would have to move there. After much thought, she finally decided that she should do it. I mean, it was a once in a lifetime shot. Plus, Summer lived in New York. She worked at a fashion magazine called Entice. She loved her job.

Jimmy and Julie split the cost of an apartment in New York for Marissa to live in. It was beautiful. It took up a whole floor of the building. It was completely furnished, and in the perfect part of town, and Marissa couldn't have been happier. Her and Jimmy visited it and brought the majority of her belongings, well, except for most of her clothes. Marissa said that she would just take them when she really left.

Today was the day that she was leaving. She was excited, nervous, anxious, sad to be leaving her dad and stepmother, but happy to be going to New York and really starting her life.

She woke up early and finished packing the stuff that remained in her room, including the scrapbook of her and Alex that she had been looking at more and more lately. She looked around the room one last time, and grabbed all of her suitcases.

"Marissa, honey, you're going to miss your flight!"

(Present)

"Aw, I could never forget about you two. You know that Mer. I promise I will come back every chance I get to visit you guys. I love you," Marissa told her stepmother, tears starting to pour onto her cheeks as well.

"I love you too. Oh gosh." Meredith said as the tears kept pouring down. " I hate crying!" she said with a laugh. It made Marissa laugh too. "you'll call when you get there?" Mer asked.

"Of course. I've got to go. I'll talk to you soon." Marissa said before more tears could fall. She really did love Meredith. She made up for Julie being such a bitch all of those years. Julie was totally different now, and her and Marissa got along really well. Actually, Marissa just went and visited her in Newport about 2 months ago, but her relationship with Mer was different. They were friends too.

"Okay. Bye Rissa," she said with one last hug.

"Bye Mer," Marissa said and grabbed her purse and walked out to the car.

"Ready kiddo?" Jimmy said as she got in the car.

"Yeah."

After a tearful goodbye at the airport, and many hugs and promises to call and visit, Marissa was boarding the plane to New York.

"New York, here I come," she mumbled to herself after getting seated in her first-class seat.

**Whew. That was a long first chapter. Haha. Ok, so, I will explain everything a bit better now. Pretty much everything that happened in the past is the same in this story except:**

**Marissa went to Alex's after their breakup, as explained earlier, and it took her longer to get on with her life than it did in the show. She still misses her...but only Summer knows.**

**R/M broke up pretty much right after season 3 started. It was mutual, and there wasn't really any hard feelings. They knew it was the right thing to do.**

**Johnny liked Marissa, but she just wanted to stay friends so they did. Then after she went back to Harbor he went on a surfing your thing. (He won't be in this fic, but he didn't die…cause that just started a bunch of crap)**

**Volchek never happened. He hit on Marissa, but she hated him. End of story. Lol**

**So she went to live with Jimmy and five years later...her she is.**

**Sorry about the confusion and the longevity, I just had a lot of esplainin to do. Haha**

**Next up is Alex, and I doubt it'll be this long. Sorry it's going so slow, but things won't really pick up until chapter 3.**

**The POV is like…all knowing. I forget what that's called. Ha…I need to pay more attention.**

**So...thank you for reading, and please review. This is my first fic, so if it sucks tell me. Haha and constructive criticism is appreciated.**

**By the way…this is a Malex fic.**


	2. World Spins Madly On

-1Chapter 2- World Spins Madly On

**A/N:** Well hello there. Thank you so much for the reviews. They mean a lot. And if you haven't reviewed, please do so. By the way, if any of you have any questions (its ok, I know this is a bit confusing) feel free to email me and ask away. And, my old pen name was benshott, but I changed it, so some of you might recognize me from reviewing your stories. I promise the next chapter will be better, I just had a lot of stuff to fill you guys in on before I actually started the story. Anyway. Here it 'tis.

Disclaimer for the whole story- I don't own nothin.

"_And I told you I didn't want my picture ta-ay-ken, but you snapped it anyway, well I guess now, I guess you won't have trouble remembering me some day, some day-ayyyy-"_

"Ugh!" She searched for her phone, finally finding it on the floor beside the bed, and opened it.

"Okay that song is so not a good song to wake up to," she mumbled into the phone.

"Yeah but it's _our _song. You know you love it," the other person replied.

"Uh huh. So…why are you calling me this early in the morning?" she asked frustrated.

"That's no way to talk to your sister Alex. And maybe I just miss you." the younger girl said.

"Ashley, I saw you...like…" she looked at the clock, "seven hours ago. What do you want?"

"Ok, you got me. Well…you see, we got some deliveries today and…well…they're all messed up. Some of the stuff isn't even here and the stuff that is here is either not enough or the wrong kind. I never knew there were so many types of alcoholic beverages." Ashley said quickly.

"Slow down…all of your talking is making my head hurt."

"I told you last night not to drink so much. But did you listen to me? Noooo!" she exclaimed.

"Ha. Ha ha," Alex replied sarcastically, "ok now…can't you just tell the people that they got the deliveries wrong and to fix it?" Alex was still aggravated that she was woken up at 9 am after getting only 4 hours of sleep.

"But you're so much better at yelling at people! I'm too nice!" she whined.

" You don't seem to have a problem yelling at me," she retorted.

"Yeah, but you're my sister Lex! It's easier." she said.

"Forget it. I'm not coming down there!" Alex replied.

"But it's your club!" she said, drawing out the word 'your'.

"Yeah, my club, that I'm paying you to manage! Now listen. Go down there to the delivery guys, tell them they fucked everything up-"

"Aleeeeexxx," the younger one interrupted, whining.

"You really need to get a back bone. Ok, tell them that the orders aren't correct and you would really appreciate it if they could fix them," she replied, annoyed at her sister for not having the balls to tell someone that they screwed up.

"Hmm…that's not too bad. Thanks Alex! You're the best!" the girl said, happy that she had found out the answer to her problem.

"Yeah I know. Ok, well I'm going to go get showered and everything now that I'm UP!" Alex said angrily.

Ashley laughed nervously, "Yeah sorry about that. But I got to go. Duty calls. Are you coming down here tonight?"

"Yeah, James wanted to check out the band tonight," she said, not noticing her slip.

"Ugh. Jaaaammmmees," she said in high-pitched annoying voice. "So you'll come down here just for him huh? I see how it is."

"Ha. Funny." Alex said sarcastically. "Why don't you like him anyway?"

"Um, because he's an ass??" she retorted. "I can't stand that guy. He's a man whore."

"We've been going out for 2 months. How is he a man whore?"

"Because he flirts with anything that moves!" Ashley exclaimed.

"That's not true-"

"Puh-lease" she said dramatically.

"Whatever. I got to get ready. I'll talk to you later." Alex was upset with her sister. She guessed that Ashley and her latest boyfriend, James, would just never get along.

"Ok. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset. I just…I don't know. I get a bad feeling about that guy. He doesn't deserve you. But I'll talk to you later. Love ya sis." she said, regret showing in her voice.

"It's ok. Love you too. Bye."

"Bye."

Alex sighed when she closed her phone. She knew that James wasn't exactly the best guy out there, but he was nice and charming, and he was hot.

But she loved her little sister more than anything, and she cared about what she thought.

"_Well…I guess I'll be breaking up with him soon. There goes another one," _she thought

Ashley was Alex's younger sister by two years. The two were always very close, but when Alex moved to Newport they didn't talk much. When Alex moved back home, they kind of picked up where they left off.

"Hmm. To change the ring tone, or not to change the ring tone. That is the question." Alex said out loud. "Oh god I'm talking to myself." she rolled her eyes.

She starting laughing though when she thought about how she came to love the song used as her sister's ring tone.

Alex had been in LA after her and Marissa broke up for about two weeks when her sister decided that they need to have some good quality time together. So there were off to the mall.

On the way there, Ashley put a cd in. The sounds of Saves the Day were quickly heard coming through the speakers.

"What is this?" Alex asked.

"Saves the Day, duh. Now shut up, I like this song!" Ashley yelled, and then turned the music up louder.

"_Don't you remember the last time we were speeding down this highway?  
Anna slept in the back seat, dreaming in the autumn heat.  
We turned up the country radio.  
I said, "if you want me just say so."   
I slicked back my hair in the wind."_

"What the hell?? This is horrible!" Alex exclaimed.

But Ashley only continued to sing along at the top of her lungs.

"_I told you I didn't want my picture taken but you snapped it anyway.   
Now I guess you won't have trouble remembering me someday."_

"You really like that song?" Alex asked once Ashley was finished with the whole song.

"You don't?!" she said, amazed.

"It's annoying!"

"That's just because you don't know it. And it's so much fun to sing along to. Here, I'll play it again. You'll start liking it, I swear." she said and pressed the back button on the stereo.

"Doubt it," Alex replied as she rolled her eyes.

Well…turns out, Alex really did grow to love the song. So pretty much every time her and Ashley would get in the car together, they would play it and sing along, screaming their lungs out. So when it Alex was trying to figure out what ring tone to use for her sister, only one song popped into her head. "_Take Our Cars Now!"_ by Saves the Day.

Alex smiled to herself and dropped her phone. There was no way she could change it after all of this time, even if it wasn't the best song to wake up to.

She started walking towards her shower and sighed. She didn't really want to go tonight. But she assumed she had to. It was her club after all. She thought about how lucky she was, to be living it up in the city, and to have her very own club.

The club was called _Two Faced. _The reason for the name was because half of the week the club was a dance club, and it played all rap and hip-hop, well, pretty much anything you could dance to. And for the other half, they had the best up and coming rock bands (and all of the popular bands) come and perform. It was really the best of both worlds. Everyone loved the place, celebrities included. Alex was really proud of. And she felt like she deserved it too. After all, she worked her ass off for it.

After leaving Newport, she went back home to LA. She ended up going back to school, and when it came time for college, she knew that she wanted out of California. So when NYU accepted her, she packed all of her stuff and moved across the country. She majored in business management, and knew exactly what she wanted to do. Own a club. Luckily, in the four years that she had lived in New York, she had tons of contacts, and plenty of people that were will willing to help her make her dreams happen.

So she started planning for it when she started her last year of college, and her parents helped fund it. Throughout the years, they had really become close and accepted Alex for who she was. Her dad even enlisted the help of Art Steele, a middle aged man who owned four clubs in Atlanta, Miami, Las Vegas, and LA, and they were all hot spots for celebs. This man was truly the best in the business, and was more than happy to help Alex with the new club after he heard her ideas for it.

The club opened two weeks after she graduated from NYU, and was an immediate hit. And Alex couldn't have been happier with the way that everything was turning out in that part of her life.

Her love life, however, was another story. Through the years, Alex had girlfriends and boyfriends, but none of them lasted more than about 3 months. It was hard to find someone worth dating in New York. All the girls were usually obnoxious and not her type at all, and the guys thought they were God's gift to women. And her latest boyfriend, James, was no exception. He was a total dud. Sure, he was hot, but he knew it. And he was completely clueless when it came to Alex and her feelings.

Alex realized the reason that most of her relationships failed, and that was because they could never live up to the relationship that she had with…_her._

Her. Tall, skinny, brown hair, blue eyed beauty. Marissa.

Alex still missed her after all of these years, and wished that she could see her, find out how she was doing. The break-up was horrible for Alex. For months, she didn't look at a guy or girl and think about them in _that way. _ Because every time she would, she thought about Marissa and how much she missed her. She felt so stupid for leaving. If she would have stayed, maybe it would have worked out.

But it was too late now. She didn't even have her number anymore after an unfortunate accident involving a pool and a fully clothed Alex being thrown in, cell phone in her back pocket. And she didn't have her contacts saved on her SIM card, so every number was lost. Alex liked to think that if she had Marissa's number she would call her, but she figured that her nerves would get the best of her.

Alex shook her head to stop the trip down Memory Lane, and started getting ready. She had a few errands to run before going to the club tonight.

After getting out of the shower, Alex picked up her phone and noticed that she had two missed calls. One was from Katie, a girl about a year younger than Alex. They were introduced to each other by Ashley, because her and Katie were best friends. Alex and Katie got along really well, and they quickly became good friends.

The other call was from Peyton, a girl the same age as Alex. The two met their freshman year in college, and have since then been best friends. They told each other anything and everything. Peyton showed Alex around New York when they met, because she was born and raised there. Alex doesn't know what she would have done all these years without Peyton. The two weren't romantic or anything, because Peyton was straight as a board. She loved men. (Peyton is kind of Alex's Summer) But she had no problem when Alex told her that she was bisexual, and neither did the rest of Peyton's friends, who all soon became Alex's friends too.

Alex called Katie first, because she said that it was important on the message.

"Ello?" the girl on the other end answered.

"Hey Katie, what's up?" Alex replied.

"Oh nothing much. I was just wondering who was playing at the club tomorrow," she said.

"So, that's what was so important?" Alex asked.

"Uh yeah. Pretty much. I knew you'd call me back if I said that," she laughed.

"Ugh. I would have called you back anyway. And Silverchair is supposed to perform tomorrow," she said.

"I love Silverchair!! Are you going?" she asked.

"Duh. Do you know long it took to get them to play? There's no way I'd miss them," she exclaimed.

"Ok good. How bout we invite everybody down there tomorrow, we can all hang out."

"Yeah that sounds good. The show starts at 8, but we can get there at about 7." Alex said.

"Awesome. Listen I gotta go, I'm about to go into a meeting with, 'The Man'." Katie said.

"You mean he's real? I thought he was just a made up person. I've only heard you mention seeing him once," she laughed.

"Yeah, and that was when I first started working here. He said 'Hey you, get me a coffee'. It was touching, really." she joked. "But yeah, we're having a new girl come in from Hawaii, and we're having a meeting about her. She's supposed to be really good, with a degree and everything. She's gonna be on the design team with me."

"Oh that sounds cool. But I'll let you go, I gotta call Peyton."

"Ok, bye Lex."

"Bye," Alex responded and hung up the phone.

Then she pressed 1 on the speed dial.

"Bout time you called me bitch!" she heard Peyton's voice answer.

Alex laughed, "Nice to talk to you to Peyt. What's up?"

Peyton laughed also, "Nothing much, I was just seeing what you were up to today."

"I gotta pick up some stuff from the store, then tonight I'm going down to the club. What about you?"

"Ehh. Nothing. I'm bored. Want to go grab lunch?" she asked.

"Sure. Where?" Alex stated.

"How about that new Italian restaurant? I heard It's really good."

"Sure. Meet you there in an hour?"

"Sounds good. See you then. Bye."

"Bye."

Alex looked through her closet and found something to wear. When she walked out, something on her dresser caught her eye. It was a picture of her and Marissa, on they beach about a week after they started going out. They both had huge smiles on their faces.

Alex had debated putting the picture up, she worried that it would make her miss the brunette even more, but decided to put it up. It was from a time when she was really happy, and it was a good memory. She looked at the clock and noticed that she really needed to leave.

"Shit…I gotta hurry." she said while grabbing her keys and walking out of her posh apartment.

**A/N**- Ok. All done. Next chapter will have a lot more dialogue in it, I promise. Haha. The story really starts now. But I think that M/A won't meet until chapter four, so hang in there. By the way, like I said, the song is "Take Our Cars Now" by Saves the Day. It's a fun song. Download it if you want to. And it really doesn't have anything to do with the story, but I thought I'd just throw it in there. Next chap should be up in about 2 days.


	3. Say Yes

-1**Chapter 3**- Say Yes

**A/N- **Here is the next installment. Thanks to bigblusky, darBard0, and Bound Dragon for reviewing. Also, in the last chapter, when Katie was talking to Alex, and asked who was playing at the club tomorrow…well…let's just pretend she said Friday. (Chap. 1 & 2 took place on Wednesday) Sorry about that. And to DarkBard0, I'm glad someone else likes Silverchair as much as I do. Lol But...I'm not sure if I like their new song. It's a bit too poppy for me you know? Haha. Anyway…

_Beep, beep, beeeeep, beeeeeeeep, **BEEEEEEP!**_

"UGH!" Marissa said as she slammed her hand down on the alarm clock. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked at the time. _6:02 am_ it read. She slowly rolled out of bed and made her way towards her bathroom to turn on the shower. _"First day of work," _she thought. _"Well at least I had yesterday to rest. I doubt I'm going to be getting a lot of that from now on."_

After the long flight to New York, she finally arrived at the airport and Summer was there to greet her. They screamed and hugged each other, and soon they were off to Marissa's new apartment. Summer spent the night with her, and the next day she showed her around the city a little bit, but after receiving a call from the secretary that worked at _Steven Mercado _asking if it was possible for Marissa to come in Friday instead of Monday, they had to get back to Marissa's apartment so she could get into bed.

Once Marissa was out of the shower, she did her make-up and began to look for something to wear. She found the perfect outfit, finished getting ready, and left her apartment, ready to begin her day.

"Um…TAXI!" she yelled, a bit unsure of herself. However, one immediately pulled up beside her and she got in and told him the address. Then her nerves really started to kick in.

"_What if they don't like me...oh god…maybe I should have worn the brown skirt instead…ok…just calm down...its going to be ok." _ She thought to herself nervously.

They soon pulled up to a building that was labeled _Steven Mercado, _and Marissa walked up to the front door. Once inside, she took the elevator to the 7th floor as she was told to do when talking to the secretary…Amy, she thought her name was.

_DING! _The noised sounded once the 7th floor was reached. Marissa walked out of the elevator and up to the desk that was straight ahead.

"Um hi, I'm Marissa Cooper, I start today," she said to the woman behind the desk. She assumed it was whom she spoke to on the phone a few days earlier. She looked at her nametag. _"Erin" _it said. "_Well, I was kind of close," _Marissa thought to herself.

"Oh yes, Miss Cooper. I am so sorry about the change of plans. You see, Mr. Mercado is leaving tomorrow morning for a business trip, and we wanted you to be able to meet him," she apologized.

"Oh it was no problem, really," Marissa replied.

"Ok well, let me show you to your new office," Erin said as she began to get up.

_Knock knock_

"Come in!"

"Hey Alex." Ashley said as she walked into Alex's office at the club.

"Oh, hey Ash. What's up?" Alex said, putting down the papers in her hand.

"Nothing much, I was just wondering who all was coming tonight." Ashley asked.

"Let's see….Katie and her new boyfriend…what was his name…"

"Mark?" Ashley filled in the blank for her.

"Yeah, that's him. And Peyton, James and Drew, and two other girls that are coming with Peyton. I think they went to college with us." Alex said.

"Oh ok. Just wondering. I'm so stoked for tonight. It's gonna be awesome!" Ashley said excitedly.

"Yeah I know. I can't wait. I should probably call Katie and see if she's still coming and everything. I haven't talked to her since Wednesday. I guess I'll wait a couple of hours though, until she's on her lunch break."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Plus, that new girl is coming in today. She's probably going to be busy. But I guess I'll go back out there," she said, referring to the club, "and make sure everybody's doing their job" she laughed.

"Yeah you do that" Alex replied as Ashley walked to the door.

"See ya sis"

"Bye."

"So, here's your office!" Erin said as she opened the door.

"Wow, this place is huge." Marissa was amazed.

"Yep. Pretty big. Oh, do you want to meet Katie? She is on the design team too, and you guys will be working together a lot," Erin asked.

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks." Marissa replied. She was glad to be meeting new people so she didn't feel so out of place. And Erin was really nice, so that was good.

"Ok, her office is right across from yours," she said, leading her out of the door.

When they got there, Marissa heard the sounds of The Clash, "_Train in Vain" _coming through the door and started laughing.

"She does this a lot," Erin laughed too, and then knocked on the door, but got no answer.

She slowly opened the door, and laughed again at what she saw. There was Katie, dancing around in her office like a fool, using her cell phone as a microphone. Her dirty blonde hair was swinging from side to side as she spun around. She still hadn't noticed that two people were laughing at her from the doorway because she had her back towards them.

"_Did you li-ieee, when you-"_

Erin slowly walked over to her computer and hit the pause button, causing the music to stop playing.

Katie was so caught in the moment that she finished singing the line of the song.

"-spoke to me!" she yelled, but immediately stopped once she noticed the music was cut off. She slowly turned around to see Erin standing there with a smirk on her face, and a girl laughing in the doorway, who she didn't know.

"Uhh..hi." Katie said quietly, her face quickly growing a deep shade of red.

"Having fun? Katie, I would like to introduce you to the new designer, Marissa Cooper," Erin said, still giggling.

Katie and Marissa started walking towards each other and they each stuck out their hand.

"So nice to meet you. Nice performance, by the way," Marissa threw in.

"Likewise, and thanks," Katie said, still recovering from her embarrassment.

"I figured it would be best if you and Marissa met before the meeting, so maybe you could show her around some," Erin said.

"Meeting?" Marissa asked.

"Oh yes, I'm so I forgot to tell you. There is going to be a meeting today at about 11'o clock. Mr. Mercado will be there, as well as all of the other significant persons that work here. We figured we would go ahead and introduce you to everyone," Erin said.

"Oh, ok" Marissa replied.

"Well, I would be more than happy to show you around then! You can hang out with me all day…it's not like I have anything better to do," Katie laughed.

"I see that," Marissa joked. "But yeah that would be really great."

"Well, I'm going to let you girls get to it," Erin said as she walked out of the door.

"So Marissa, tell me, what is your story?" Katie asked.

"Well…."

Marissa then gave her her life story as short as she could make it.

"Well then!" Katie laughed.

"Hey, you asked!" Marissa exclaimed jokingly. She really was liking this Katie girl, it seemed like the two were very similar.

Katie laughed too, "So, what about your love life?" She asked.

"Well…I've dated many guys...some girls...but I'm single right now." She said. She figured it would be best if she went ahead and told Katie about her sexuality.

"Oh ok. So you're bi?" Katie asked. She figured she might as well ask it.

"Yeah. I mean...is that…" Marissa stuttered.

"Oh yeah, that's totally cool. Some of my best friends are bi to, and I even dated couple of girls in college. I have no problem with it." Katie answered.

"Oh ok…I was worried about...you know," she said.

"Yeah. I gotcha." Katie said.

"So, what about you?" Marissa asked.

"Well there's not much to tell really. I mean, you made my story sound like something out of the Brady Bunch," she laughed.

"Wow, thanks!" Marissa laughed too.

"Ok well, I grew up in New Jersey, parents got divorced when I was 15, so I moved with my mom to Connecticut. She had family there" Katie explained. " My mom and I never got along, I never even wanted to move in with her, but my dad is really immature and he couldn't really take care of both of us. But soon, I couldn't handle my mom anymore. I asked her if I could move in with my aunt, who lived here. Me and my aunt were always really close, I love her to death. She was stoked when I asked if I could move in with her, because she didn't have a husband or anything, and she knew how bad my mom could be. And of course my mom was more than happy to agree to me moving here. So I did. And I've lived here ever since then. I went to college at NYU and make great friends who I really consider my family. I live in my own apartment now, and I barely ever speak to my mom. On Christmas and stuff like that I do. I still talk to my dad about once a week though, and I'm always going over to my Aunt's house. Then after graduating last year, I got an offer to work here. I love it. And that's pretty much it. Oh, and right now I have a boyfriend named Mark. I like him, we just started going out a couple of weeks ago though."

"Oh. Well then!" Marissa said, mimicking what Katie said earlier.

Katie laughed and looked at the clock. "Oh crap, we have the meeting in like 10 minutes!" she said. So they hurried and left, off to the meeting.

"_Feel like making………Feel like making love-"_

Alex rolled her eyes at the ring tone that James had programmed to ring whenever he called. Then she picked up her phone and flipped it open.

"Hello?" she asked aggravated. She really didn't want to talk to him right now.

"Hey babe. I was just seeing if we were still on for tonight," James's deep voice sounded through the phone.

"Yeah, I guess," Alex said snappily. (that's such a cool word…lol)

"Ok, well, me and Drew might be a little bit late. But we'll see you guys there sooner or later," he replied, completely oblivious to the tone that Alex was using.

"Ok whatever. I'll see you tonight," Alex said and hung up. She was mad, because usually guys would be nice enough to come and pick her up, but James wasn't even going to do that. And he was going to be late for crying out loud! She didn't even bother to ask why he was going to be late. She figured that there was a game on or something that he wanted to watch. She looked at the clock, _11:30, _it said. Well...she supposed she should wait until about 12 to call Katie.

"Hey, want to go grab some lunch?" Katie asked Marissa as they were walking out of the meeting.

"Yeah that sounds good." Marissa said. She was very relieved. Pretty much everyone was very nice and welcoming to her. Sure, Mr. Mercado was a little…well… let's just say that he never really said anything unless he had to. He seemed like an ass to Marissa, but oh well. He owned the place, he had he right to be.

"So…I don't get it. If Mr. Mercado is the designer, then why does he need us?" Marissa asked once they were sat down at a cute little café down the block from the office.

"Ha…yeah, Mr. Mercado doesn't really do anything. He just takes the credit for it. We pretty much do everything," Katie replied.

"Oh, ok. Well…that's still gonna be pretty cool though… to know that all of our designs are making him famous" Marissa laughed.

"Yeah I guess. I never really looked at it that way," Katie laughed too. "I'm gonna go to the restroom real quick ok? Be right back." Katie said, starting to get up.

"Ok."

Alex looked at the clock. _12:17. "Hmm…she should be on her lunch break by now" _Alex thought. She picked up her phone and dialed her number and began to hear it ring.

As Katie was starting to walk out of the bathroom, she heard her cell ringing, and saw Marissa grab it out of her purse.

"Hey could you answer that?" Katie asked, knowing that she wouldn't get back to the table before it went to voicemail.

Marissa looked at the phone, "_Skyy"_, it read. She pressed the "Answer" button and put the phone up to her ear. "Hello?" she asked.

"Uhh, hey…is…um, Katie there?" Alex asked, being caught off guard by a voice that wasn't Katie's, yet sounded so familiar.

"Umm yeah, here she is," Marissa said as she gave the phone to Katie who had arrived at the table. That voice…it sound so familiar. But she didn't know anyone named Skyy for sure. So she brushed it off.

Katie grabbed her phone. "Hey Skyy" she laughed.

"You still haven't changed that?" Alex laughed.

"Nope," Katie said and thought back to the reason for the nickname of Skyy.

One night, Alex got completely trashed off of, straight up, Skyy Vodka, and called almost every person in her phonebook, including most of her ex's. She received a ton of phone calls the next day from her friends...most of them cussing her out for calling them drunk at 4 o'clock in the morning. After that, Katie and some of her other friends called Alex "Skyy" constantly. Katie even bought her a shirt for her birthday one year that said "_Don't let your friends drink and dial"._

"Hey, who was that that answered your phone?" Alex asked.

"Oh, that was the new designer I was telling you about. Oh and hey, I'm gonna invite her to come out with us tonight ok?" Katie said. Marissa raised her eyebrows at her, but Katie only smiled.

"Ok, that's cool. That's actually what I was calling about, just to make sure that you and Mark were still coming tonight." Alex said. When she heard Katie say that it was the new designer that answered the phone, Alex quickly dismissed any thoughts that she was having about knowing the person. After all, she didn't know any body in Hawaii, and that's where Katie said she was from.

"Of course, wouldn't miss it for the world. Well, Silverchair at least" Katie laughed.

"Silverchair?" Alex heard the new girl ask.

"Yeah, they're performing tonight" Katie replied.

"I love Silverchair!" Marissa exclaimed.

"Me too!!" Katie said.

"Well, new girl isn't bad after all! I mean, how bad could she be if she likes Silverchair!" Alex joked.

"Yeah, she's real cool." Katie said, shooting Marissa a smile. "Ok so are we meeting there around 7?"

"Yeah, sounds good. See you then," Alex replied and hung up.

"So," Katie began, "I would like to formally invite you to my friends club, Two Faced, tonight."

Marissa laughed at her choice of words. "You're friend owns it?" Marissa asked.

"Yep, the one you just talked to."

"Oh. Well, I would love to come. Is it ok if I bring Summer?"

"Oh yeah, no problem!" Katie said. After all, she wanted to meet this Summer character after everything Marissa had told her about her.

"Ok. So Silverchair's gonna be there huh?" Marissa asked. She thought back to when she had first heard Silverchair……

_It was the morning after Marissa told her mom about her and Alex. After unpacking her things, Marissa walked into Alex's…well…their…living room and heard a song playing through the speakers of the stereo._

"_My suicidal dreams,_

_Voices telling me what to do, _

_My suicidal dreams_

_Someday you will get yours too"_

"_Wow. Umm…Alex, are you ok?" Marissa asked, worried that something was wrong with Alex. She hoped that Alex wasn't having a bunch of regrets about having a relationship with her._

"_Yeah, I'm fine." Alex replied, standing up to give Marissa a kiss. "Why? She asked when she pulled back. _

"_I don't know, it's just, well, this song seems kind of depressing." Marissa said, biting her lip._

"_Oh yeah" Alex laughed. "It does seem a bit depressing, but its an amazing song. It's by Silverchair. You've heard them right?" Alex asked._

"_Well," Marissa began, "I've heard of them, but not really heard them" Marissa replied._

"_Oh my god, you're kidding right?" And when Marissa shook her head she continued, "Ok, I'll be right back!" Alex ran into their bedroom and soon came out with quite a few cds in her hand. "Ok, while I'm at work, you have to listen to all of these!! "Umm, number 3 and 6 are the best on this one, 2, 3, and 7 are the best on this one," she said quickly while flipping through the cds._

"_Ok, how about I just listen to all of them," Marissa replied sarcastically. _

"_Yeah, that's a good idea!" Alex replied. Marissa just laughed._

_So while Alex was at work, Marissa stayed true to her word and listened to every single one of the cds. She found out that she really liked them, and Alex was thrilled to hear that when she got home. _

Every time Marissa thought about Silverchair, she thought about Alex.

"Yep. It's gonna be awe-some!" Katie sang.

"Yeah, I'm so excited." Marissa answered truthfully.

"How about Summer comes over your place tonight and that way me and Mark can come and pick you guys up so we don't have to worry about giving directions and stuff." Katie said.

"Sounds perfect! What time?"

"Hmm, 6:30? We get off at 4 on Fridays, so I figured that would give you enough time to get ready and stuff." Katie said.

"Ok, let me just call Sum and tell her," Marissa said while getting her phone out of her purse. She pressed one on speed dial and heard it ring, then a bubbly voice answered,

"COOP! How's the first day at the new job????" Summer asked excitedly.

"It's really good! I'm on my lunch break now with one of the girls that works with me, Katie. And, I was wanting to know if you would like to come with us tonight to her friends club, Two Faced."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that place. It's supposed to be real cool. Plus, I saw a picture in _US_ _Weekly_ of Justin Timberlake and some of his friends hanging out there. Awesome right?" Summer said.

"Uhh, yeah sure. So do you want to come??" Marissa laughed.

"Well DUH!" Summer shouted.

Marissa laughed again, "Sor-ry. Be over at my place at 6:15 ok?"

"Will do! See you then Coop!"

"Bye Sum." Marissa said and placed her phone back into her purse.

"6:00?" Katie asked.

"Yeah, she is always late. Trust me, she'll get there at 6:30. And even if some how she manages to get there before then, we'll hang out until you guys get there."

"Ok, you ready to go?" Katie asked once she noticed that they were both finished with their lunch.

"Sure. Let's go." Marissa said and they went back to the office.

Marissa and Katie continued to hang out all day, Katie showing Marissa around the place, and Marissa standing there amazed. "_Well…this isn't too shabby" _Marissa thought. _"Ok no more quoting Austin Powers" _She laughed to herself. And once 4'o clock rolled around, she was off to her apartment to get ready for her night out.

"Hey Ashley, you want to go ahead and head home? We probably need to get ready for tonight" Alex asked. She figured they could just catch a cab together, since they shared an apartment.

"Yeah sure. I'm all done. Let's go." Ashley said, and they were on their way to their apartment.

When Alex went away to college, Ashley was really upset. She missed her sister like crazy. So when it came time for her to go to college two years later, she jumped at the chance to go New York and live with Alex. So now, she was finishing up her last year and didn't have to worry about staying in a crappy dorm.

So a few hours later, they were completely ready to go, and it was only 6 o'clock.

"Well… do you want to go ahead and head down there?" Alex asked Ashley. We can go ahead and order some drinks while we wait."

"Yeah, that's fine." Ashley said. They would probably be waiting on everyone else for about 40 minutes, but oh well.

_Knock knock _

Marissa walked to her door. "Hey Sum, you're on time!" Marissa joked.

"Well duh. Aren't I always?" Summer asked once she was inside Marissa's apartment.

"Um, no." Marissa said bluntly. "But, Katie and her boyfriend won't be here until about 6:30, and I have to finish up my make-up, so you can just watch tv or something if you want." Marissa said as she walked into her bedroom, and Summer followed.

"Wow, looking hot Coop!" Summer said, referring to Marissa's skinny jeans, straight, dirty blonde hair (like it was in the 3rd season), and the black sleeveless shirt that she was wearing that had a plunging neckline, but it was still classy.

"Thanks Sum. You look hot too! I wanted to make a good impression on Katie's friends. I mean, besides you, she's the only person that I know here and it would be really cool if all of us could hang out. Plus, her friend owns the club! How awesome is that??"

"Wow. That is cool." Summer replied.

The girls sat around for awhile and when it got to be 6:45, they started wondering where Katie was. So Marissa picked up her phone and called her.

"Hey Marissa, I'm so sorry we're late. I had to wait for Mark for-ever!" Katie answered dramatically.

"Oh whatever! I was they one waiting on you to finish getting ready!" Marissa heard a voice in the background saying, and she assumed it was Mark.

"Anyway!" Katie said to Marissa, "We're going to be at your apartment in like, 5 ok?"

"Ok. And Summer is actually here on time, by the way!" Marissa laughed. "See you soon, bye."

"Buh-bye" Katie replied laughing and hung up the phone.

"I wonder where Katie and them are!" Alex said to Peyton. "She was supposed to be here like, 25 minutes ago." she said looking at the time on her cell phone.

"Who knows." Peyton replied.

Everyone, except for Katie, Mark, Marissa, and Summer, had already arrived at the club. Even James and Drew got there on time, claiming that the baseball game that they were watching finished earlier than they expected. They were all sitting in a large rectangular booth, in this seating arrangement: Drew, James, and Alex, were all sitting on the left side of the booth (in that order) and on the other side were Peyton and her two friends, Liz and Stephanie.

Peyton then saw Katie come in through the door which was behind the side of the booth that Alex and them were sitting at.

Door.

D, J, A.

-------

P, L, S.

((((illustration)))

And when Peyton looked closer, she saw Mark and two other girls that she didn't know walking towards them. _"Where do I know the blondish one?? Wait…oh my god, it can't be….the girl in the picture in Alex's room! The one from Newport that she told me so much about!!" _Peyton thought in her head.

"Hey guys, sorry we're so late." Katie said as she walked up to the table.

Marissa shyly walked up and stood beside the booth where Drew was sitting, and since the booths were so high and James was leaned on the table talking to Alex, She didn't see the two.

"Oh my god." Peyton said as Marissa came up and she figured out who she was.

"What?" Katie asked.

Marissa looked at Peyton but didn't understand what was going on.

Then Summer walked up and stood beside Peyton, which gave her a clear view of the blonde haired girl who she recognized as Alex Kelly, Marissa's old girlfriend from Newport. "Oh my god!" She said.

"What?" Katie asked again.

It was only then that Alex looked up to see what all of the commotion was about. And when she did, who she saw was a person that she never thought she would see again. She was as beautiful as ever, and Alex looked at her speechless.

"What?" Marissa asked, still looking at Summer. Then she followed her gaze and saw the blonde beauty that she had been thinking about for years, staring back at her with her stunning blue eyes. "Oh my god!" Marissa said excitedly.

Alex finally found her voice. "Oh, my god."

**A/N- hehe. Couldn't resist. By the way, I'm starting school Monday...so updates won't be quite as often, but I will try to have the next one up by Sunday night. Please review!**


	4. Against All Odds

-1Chapter 4- Against All Odds

**A/N- So…I know all of you guys are hating me right about now huh? I just want to say how terribly sorry I am. When I said that they post would be up Sunday, I had no intentions of it being the next Sunday. Lol, but school started and it was like, BAM! And I couldn't write anything this whole week. But, enough with the excuses. I have to say that you guys were great with the reviews on the last chapter, I was thrilled to read all of them. Thanks to Bound Dragon, comedowntome, The Angel's Devil, drumstiix, Addicted 2 O.C., ALEXISSA2, Dar19, and Kichi-san for reviewing. And especially ALEXISSA2, because she reviewed every chapter. Lol. Anyways, here we go….**

"WHAT???" Katie yelled out again impatiently.

But no one moved. The four "omg'ers" just continued to stare at each other, neither of them knowing what to do.

Alex finally broke out of her trance, "Marissa?? Summer?" she asked, amazed.

"Alex?!" they both responded at the same time..

Alex quickly began to get out of the booth and walk over to the two, well…she almost ran.

Since she got to Summer first, she leaned in and hugged her. "Hey Alex," Summer said as she was being hugged.

When Alex pulled back, she looked at Marissa. "Hi," she said in a quieter voice. But with a huge smile still on her face.

"Hey!" Marissa said and pulled Alex into a hug.

"Oh my god," Marissa repeated again, but this time in a much softer voice that only Alex could hear. The two held onto each other tightly, refusing to let go. After holding onto each other for what seemed like forever, but was really only seconds, the two broke apart, each of them with huge smiles on their faces.

Every one else looked on with confused faces.

Alex stood there and checked Marissa out, liking what she saw. _"Still beautiful after all of these years" _Alex thought. _"Her hair is just…wow. Everything about her is wow."_

Marissa stood there, thinking those same thoughts.

"So……." Katie drew out, tired of feeling 'out of the loop' . "I take it you three know each other??" she asked.

"Yeah" Alex said, looking away from Marissa and to everyone at the table. "You guys, this is Marissa and Summer. I met them back whenever I lived in Newport. We were…" Alex stopped. It wasn't that she had a problem telling them that her and Marissa dated, but she wasn't sure how Marissa would feel about it. So she just continued, "We were really good friends," she said, including Summer. When Alex and Marissa dated, Alex got to know Summer and really liked her. She had a sort of, spunk about her. And they really were good friends.

"Ohhhh! Ok, gotcha," Katie said. She had heard about the girl from Newport before, but not really any details.

"Ok well this is Peyton, my best friend!" Alex laughed, "And this is…" she continued, but stuttered a bit once she got to James. "This is…um..James, my…boyfriend" she finally spat out.

"Well, it's nice to meet all of you guys," Summer said, and nudged Marissa, hoping for her to say the same.

"Oh uh yeah, it is," Marissa said. She had a blank look on her face. This was all happening so fast, she didn't even have time to think. First, she sees Alex, the one person she never thought she'd see again, and is totally excited, but when she hears that she has a boyfriend, she feels her heart sink. _"What the hell?" _she thought. _"Marissa, it's been like 5 years. I doubt Alex even cares that she saw you. So why are you getting all jealous that she has a boyfriend" _She asked herself.

Alex looked at Marissa. She could have sworn that she saw a look pass across Marissa's face, that looked almost like that of…_"disappointment?" _ Alex asked herself. "_Nah." _she thought. After all, it had been 5 years since she last saw Marissa. "_She probably couldn't care less if I had a boyfriend" _Alex thought.

If only she knew.

"Hey you guys, Silverchair is about to start up" Ashley said as she walked up to the group, drinks in hand.

Marissa looked up once she heard an unfamiliar voice. She saw a girl that looked identical to Alex, same blonde hair and blue eyes, but looked a few years younger.

"Uh, Marissa, Summer, this is my sister, Ashley. Ashley, these are some of my old friends from Cali" Alex introduce the three.

"Ohhh..so you're _the _Marissa??" Ashley asked.

Alex's cheeks quickly started growing pink and she elbowed Ashley in the ribs.

"Oh, I mean.." Ashley started as Alex glared at her, "it's so nice to meet the two of you!" Ashley said as she shook the other two's hands.

'Yeah, you too." Marissa said. "I never knew you had a sister," she whispered into Alex's ear, quiet enough for only her to hear. The simple gesture sent chills down Alex's spine, and all she could do was shrug and nod her head. _"Ok chill Kelly. You have a boyfriend, and its not like Marissa feels the same way…or, maybe…ugh stop it! Never gonna happen" _she argued with herself.

"Wait, so you're the new designer," Alex asked Marissa, finally putting two and two together.

"Yep," Marissa replied. She watched Alex's every move, fascinated by her. She had gotten even more beautiful, if that was even possible. She still had that golden blonde hair that Marissa loved so much, _"But no purple streak" _Marissa realized. And her eyes were blue as ever.

"But, Katie said that you were from Hawaii" Alex said, confused.

"Yep," Marissa said again.

Alex stared at her, her face showing how confused she really was.

"It's a long story!" Marissa laughed.

"Well. I would love to hear about it later on. You know, if you want to tell me," Alex said shyly.

"Yeah, that'd be good. And you can fill me in on the last 5 years of your life." Marissa told Alex. She was so happy that Alex had said that, because she wanted to just sit down and talk to her desperately. "It looks like you're doing well," Marissa added, taking in Alex's appearance again. Marissa could tell that all of her clothes were designer, but not to the point where they just screamed "CHANEL!". "You look good," Marissa said, hoping that she wasn't making Alex uncomfortable and stepping over the line.

"Yeah, you too. Really good," Alex said. She was screaming in the inside of her head. _"Holy shit! She just told me I looked good! Oh my god" _Alex thought, getting all giddy. But then she tried to calm herself down a bit. _"Ok, she hasn't seen you for a couple of years, and people always saw that kind of stuff to people that they haven't seen in a while" _she thought to herself. But there was a part of her that heard the honesty in Marissa's voice, and knew that she wasn't just saying that because it seemed appropriate. But she didn't want to psych herself up over something like that.

Marissa was also fighting a battle within herself. _"You idiot!! Why did you say that??? You're going to scare her away for sure! Then, there will be no chance of getti-" _she stopped herself. "_Oh my god, what am I thinking?? She has a boyfriend for crying out loud!! Well, she did say that I looked good too" _ Marissa reasoned. _"well, yeah, she probably just didn't want to be rude! Oh god, I'm definitely going crazy."_

Meanwhile, everyone else just carried on their conversations with each other, their interest in the new people vanished. Well, everyone except for Summer, Peyton, and Ashley, who kept stealing glances at the former couple.

"Ok, well, the band is starting to set up. Why doesn't everyone sit down? Marissa, Summer, would you guys like anything to drink?" Peyton asked politely.

"And, what about us??" Katie asked, referring to her and Mark.

"Well, would you and Mark like anything to drink?" Peyton asked aggravated.

"No, I'm good. Mark?" she asked, and Mark simply shook his head. "Thanks though!" Katie added with a smirk on her face.

"I hate you" Peyton said, but with a playful tone. And then looked back to Marissa and Summer, "What do you say? Drinks?" She asked them again.

"Yeah, that'd be great," Summer said, and Peyton called the waitress over. "Margarita on the rocks, with salt, please." Summer told her.

"Yeah, I'll just have the same," Marissa agreed. She didn't really want any hardcore stuff right now. She wanted to be able to remember every part of this night.

"Okay, coming right up." The waitress said.

"Okay, sit down," Peyton said, because everyone had stood up to greet the new people.

And everyone did as they were told. James slid down to his original seat, as did Drew, then Mark, Katie, and Ashley. They left no more room on that side for Alex to sit with James, which she didn't mind at all. Stephanie and Liz went to their original spots, and Summer, not really having a reason not to, slid in beside them.

"Alex, you coming back down here?" James asked. He didn't like the way that Alex looked at that chick, Marissa. When Alex saw her, the look on her face was of pure happiness. She was ecstatic. And she never got that look when she was with him.

"Oh, um" Alex weighed the options in her head: Ask someone on that side to switch places with her so she could sit beside James, or just sit beside Marissa, who had already sat down beside Summer. _"Hmm, that's a tough one,"_ Alex thought sarcastically.

"You know, there's not really any room on that side, I think I'm just gonna sit down here," She told him. She was as far away from him as possible. Thank god.

"I'm sure one of these guys wouldn't mind swapping sides with you," he persisted.

"It's ok. Don't worry about it," Alex told him in a stern voice. She knew why he was doing this, he was jealous. "_Of Marissa?"_ Alex wondered. _"Why would he be jealous? It's not like he knows that we used to date."_

But what she didn't realize was that anyone around them could see how much they still cared for each other, even after 5 years.

"_Ok, so she's choosing to sit with me rather than her boyfriend?? Hmm, well, that's gotta mean something," _Marissa thought to herself while she scooted over so Alex could sit down. _"Well, she probably just did that because…umm, ok I got nothing." _ The other part of her head thought.

Alex turned and gave Marissa a brilliant smiled as she sat down.

"Aleeeeexxxx," Ashley pouted, "Where's Silverchair??? They were supposed to start up like 10 minutes ago. Go see what's taking them so long!" she demanded.

"I can't just go up to them and be all, 'Hey you guys, hurry up! God, what's taking so long??' It would be rude." Alex replied.

"Why not?? It's your club! You can do whatever the hell you want!" Ashley insisted.

"Wait," Marissa blurted out, "Your club?" She asked, turning to Alex.

"Yep," Alex said with a proud smile on her face.

"But, what about that… Skyy girl?" Marissa asked, turning to Katie.

"Oh, that one's a long story," Katie replied. "Skyy was Alex's nickname for the longest time. And I just never changed it."

It got quiet for a moment, both Alex and Marissa were thinking.

"Oh my god!!!!" Alex said breaking the silence, a moment of realization hitting her.

"You were the one on the phone!!" Alex and Marissa both yelled at the same time.

"I knew you sounded familiar!" Alex said.

"I thought that too, but then I was like, 'Well I don't know anybody named Skyy'" Marissa laughed.

"And I was like, 'I don't know anybody from Hawaii," Alex laughed along. _"I can't believe I was actually talking to her earlier today and I didn't even know it!" _Alexthought.

Soon everyone who didn't know each other were slowly beginning to. But after sitting there for about 5 minutes, Alex realized something.

"Have you guys not got your drinks yet?" Alex asked Marissa and Summer.

They both shook their heads.

"Ugh. Stupid bartenders. Let me go get them for you," Alex replied, starting to get up.

"No don't worry about it Alex. The band's about to start playing," Marissa argued. She knew Alex didn't want to miss the beginning of one of her favorite bands' concerts.

"It's ok," Alex replied. "I don't mind." _"doing anything for you"_ Alex continued in her head. _"Ugh, shut up Kelly." _

"Ok well, at least let me go with you," Marissa said standing up along with Alex.

"Ok. Guys we'll be right back," Alex said to everyone else at the table and started walking towards the bar, Marissa in tow. She was incredibly nervous. _"Ok just don't say or do anything stupid. Play it cool," _Alex thought. _"Yeah, right."_

"So," Marissa started, "How old is your sister, Ashley?" she asked. _"Ok, don't be nervous. It's ok." _Marissa thought while trying to control her breathing. Standing so close to Alex was making her shake.

"Two years younger than us," Alex replied. She was starting to get comfortable with Marissa, just like she always had been.

"Oh. You guys are identical," Marissa told her.

"Yeah, that's everybody says. But we're really different too. She's completely carefree. She hardly ever worries. She just really lives in the moment ya know?" Alex said.

"And you?" Marissa asked.

"Well, it's kind of hard to be Miss happy-go-lucky when you've got a club to run," Alex said laughing.

"Yeah. But you still seem like the same ol' Alex to me." Marissa said, nudging her in the side playfully.

Alex turned and gave a her a huge smile. "I'm gonna get those drinks. You just want to wait here?" Alex asked as they reached the bar.

"Yeah I think so. It looks pretty crazy back there," Marissa said motioning to behind the bar where the employees where running around like crazy trying to get everyone their drinks before the band started up.

"K. Be right back." Alex said and walked behind the bar, starting to get the two drinks poured. On the inside, her mind was going crazy. _"Holy shit holy shit holy shit. I still can't believe all of this," _she thought to herself.

As soon as Alex finished making the drinks, she noticed Silverchair starting to come on the stage. "Hey, can you take this to table 37 please?" she asked a waitress who was walking by.

"Yeah sure," the girl replied.

"And tell them that I said that I'm going to watch the band play, and to come up here if they want," Alex told her.

"Um, ok," the waitress said and walked away.

Alex started to walk up to Marissa, who was staring at the band intently as they started the first notes of "Tomorrow". She handed Marissa her drink who mouthed 'thank you' in return.

Alex leaned over to Marissa and put her mouth right by her ear so she could be heard over the music. "Do you want to go up to the front?" she asked her.

"Yeah," Marissa replied and started walking towards the front of the dance floor and right in front of the band. Everyone gladly moved aside so Marissa could pass by them once they noticed that Alex Kelly herself was walking behind her. The two then stood there and listened to the whole song, both of them spellbound by the band in front of them.

Once the song ended, Marissa leaned over to Alex. "You know, when Katie told me that they were going to perform tonight, the first thing I thought about was you." Marissa told Alex with a sweet smile, stepping out on a limb and hoping that she didn't scare her off.

"Yeah, same here. When I finally booked them you were the first thing that entered my mind. I never thought that I would see you here!" Alex exclaimed.

"I know," Marissa agreed, glad that Alex didn't think she was weird. "Wild, huh?"

"You bet. I guess it was just fate," Alex replied jokingly.

"Yeah, I guess so," Marissa said with a smile still on her face. The two stood there and stared at each other for the longest time, neither one of them daring to look away, until finally Ashley almost ran right into the two, screaming over the music that had just started again.

"Thanks a lot for coming up here without us!" Ashley screamed.

"Sorry!!" Alex yelled too. Then James walked over to her and put his arm around her waist. Alex just stood there uncomfortably. This was the last thing that she wanted him to do, but she couldn't exactly just shove him off.

Marissa saw this and turned to the band again. She really didn't want to see that guy all over Alex.

"Thanks for leaving me alone Coop!" Summer yelled, coming to stand beside her.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Marissa replied with a distant look on her face.

"You ok?" Summer asked. "You seem a little out of it."

"Yeah, I'm good." Marissa said unconvincingly.

"Suuuurrrree." Summer replied with a smirk on her face.

"I'm trying to listen to the band," Marissa said and turned away from Summer.

"Hey, don't take the fact that you're drooling over someone who you went out with 5 years ago who now has a boyfriend out on me." Summer retorted in Marissa's ear so no one else would hear.

"Sum!" Marissa yelled. "Shh." She said in a quieter voice. "And I'm not drooling."

"Uh huh, whatever," Summer replied with a smirk still on her face.

"Shut up." Marissa said, but with a small smile on her face.

About an hour later.

"WWWWOOOOOOOO!!!! SILVERCHAIR ROCKS!!!" Katie yelled out, obviously already drunk. All of them were heading back to the booth, because the band was going to take a 20 minute break.

"Yeah…somebody has had a little too much to drink," Mark said. "And I think you've been standing too close to the speakers."

"ME??? NOOO." Katie replied loudly.

"Yeah. I think its about time to get you a water," Alex told her.

Marissa only laughed at her co-worker. She was so glad that she came out tonight. It was one of the most fun nights that she had in a while. Mainly because Alex was there, but she wasn't about to admit that to herself.

James on the other hand, wasn't having such a fun night. He couldn't stand the way that Alex acted when she was talking to Marissa. And he wondered why she never acted like that around him. So, he spent the whole night trying to get the two of them away from each other.

He walked up to Alex, who was talking to Marissa, Summer, and Ashley, and grabbed her by the waist and started to kiss her. He was being rough, and grabbing onto Alex a little bit too hard.

Alex pulled away as soon as she could. "What are you doing James?"

"I'm just having a little bit of fun," he slurred.

"Well, you're hurting me," she replied. She knew he was drunk, and he wasn't exactly the easiest drunk person to get along with. He had a temper.

"Oh come on, lighten up," he said as he once again grabbed a hold of Alex and started kissing up and down her neck.

"James, stop it!" she said, trying to push him away, but he was far too strong for her.

"Come on baby," he said, still not letting her go.

Marissa started to get flashback of what happened between her and Trey, and something inside of her snapped. "Hey, she said leave her alone!" she said, walking up to the two who were now a few yards away, thanks to James. She had always been the one who was in need of saving, and it felt good to help "rescue" someone else. Plus, she already hated this guy, and she wasn't about to let him treat Alex like that when she clearly didn't want anything to do with him right then.

But James kept on.

"Stop it!" she said, reaching for his arm, but he shook her off.

"Shut up," he told her.

"Get away from my sister asshole!!!" Ashley said as she smacked him over the head multiple times with her purse.

"What the hell!" he yelled as he finally pulled away, rubbing his head.

"You need to leave, now!" Katie screamed in his face.

"I'm not going anywhere!" he screamed back.

Alex finally pulled herself together. "Yes, you are." She said in a calm voice. Security was already making their way over. "I want you out of my club, and never to come back. Got it?" she told him, the strong Alex beginning to come back out.

He only looked at her as the security guards pulled him out of the club, and he started laughing. "Whatever," he said and soon disappeared through the doors.

Everyone stood there, stunned. Ashley then walked over to Alex. "Are you ok babe?" she asked, pulling her into a hug.

"Yeah, yeah I am, thank you." Alex replied, still somewhat shaky.

When they pulled out of the hug, Alex looked to Marissa. "And thank _you._ I'm so sorry, I had no idea that was going to happen. I didn't mean to ruin your night." she told her, ashamed that that happened.

"Hey, don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault. And the night's not ruined. We can still have fun," Marissa told her, and wrapped her arm around Alex's shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

"Yeah," Alex said with a small smile on her face.

"Well, that wasn't the most ecstatic answer, but I'll take it. Come on, the band's starting up again." Marissa laughed.

Alex laughed too, starting to feel better, and let herself be lead to the stage by Marissa.

**OK so, I'm not exactly happy with this chapter, but oh well. Please Please Please tell me what you guys thought about it. And also, tell me who you would like to get together, I'm open to anything. Well, except for anything involving A/M, because I'm pretty sure what I'm going to do with them eventually. Haha. And I'm open to any other suggestions. And, I'm not promising when the next chapter is going to be up, because we all know how well that turned out this time, but I have to say that the more reviews I get, the more excited and inspired I am to start writing. But I will try to get it up ASAP, but with my schedule…ehh. But it won't be more than a week again, I swear. So thanks for reading….and review!**


	5. Nothing Else Matters

-1**Chapter 5--Nothing Else Matters.**

**Umm hi. I know all of you hate me, and I really am sorry. I had no idea how busy I would be. So I apologize. By the way, is anybody else as excited as I am that Olivia is going to be on _House _this season? Supposed to be on there for like 8 episodes. I was totally into House on the first season, then I missed a few episodes and now I have no idea what is going on. Lol, so I guess I'm gonna be reading the summaries on fox. Unless any of you know where I could go to get a short summary of the past couple of seasons. Or one of you could help out. Lol Anyway. Thanks to ALEXISSA2, malex4ever, SuperGirl06, drumstiix, DarkBard0, FiresOfDeath, The Angel's Devil, Bound Dragon, and femmygirl for reviewing. And to everyone that told me that the last chapter didn't suck. I was just really nervous about it.**

**As for James, I wouldn't be so sure that you've seen the last of him.**

**And for Jodie…I want to hear from you guys. Do you want me to bring her into the story?**

_Same night, directly after the last chapter._

So yeah, Alex felt like an idiot. Of course, out of all the nights that this could have happened, it had to be the night that Marissa came. _"Well, I think it might have been because of her…who knows,"_ Alex thought. "_Ok, well, no more worrying and thinking tonight Kelly. Just enjoy the rest of the night with Marissa. Everything else can wait for tomorrow."_

"Alex? Alllleeeexxx?"

"Huh, what?" Alex asked, turning to Marissa.

"I asked if you wanted to run to the restroom with me real quick before the band starts playing again. I gotta pee." Marissa asked with a small smile on her face after seeing Alex's dazed and confused face.

"Oh, uh, yeah sure." Alex replied, finally snapping back into reality.

"Ok. Well, where is it?" Marissa laughed. She really didn't have any idea where it was.

"Oh, this way." Alex said as she started to lead Marissa through the crowd. But when she turned around she noticed that Marissa was having a hard time keeping up with her because of all the people there. So, without hesitation, she reached out and grabbed Marissa's hand.

Marissa smiled at her and squeezed her hand while walking up to stand right beside her. The two were as close as you could get, sides looked as if they were attached, mainly because of all the people pushing into them. But neither of them minded. They both told themselves that they were this close just so they wouldn't get separated again. _Yeah right. _

They finally reached the bathrooms, and let go of each other's hands, each of them feeling disappointed when the warmth was lost from their fingers. Marissa went into one of the stalls, while Alex just wiped some of the eyeliner from the bottom of her eye that had smeared. Marissa walked out of the stall and went to wash her hands, standing beside Alex.

"So, other than that little incident," Alex started, still feeling ashamed, "have you had a good time tonight?" She finished.

"Are you serious? I've had so much fun tonight. More fun than I've had in a while," Marissa admitted.

"Well, I'm glad. I've had fun too. It feels just like old times, the two of us hanging out. I've really missed that."

"Me too," Marissa told her shyly.

They then heard the slow sounds of a guitar, playing a song that they both knew so well.

_I dream about_

_How it's gonna end_

_Approaching me quickly_

_Leavin a life of fear_

_I only want my mind to be clear_

Alex and Marissa both looked at each other, and without a word they made their way out of the bathroom and towards the stage. Alex was once again ahead of Marissa, and she stuck her hand out behind her for Marissa to hold on to. Marissa gladly accepted and followed Alex to the very front of the floor.

"I didn't think they were going to play it," Marissa told Alex in her ear, referring to _Suicidal Dreams,_ aka, their song.

"I asked them to," Alex replied, smiling to Marissa. "It wouldn't be the same without it."

"Yeah," Marissa said, smiling widely at Alex. Neither of the two noticed that their hands were still intertwined. They both turned their attention towards the band and started unconsciously singing the words to the song that meant so much to them.

When the song ended, a still very drunk Katie came running up, plowing into them both. Alex untangled her hand from Marissa's in order to steady Katie, who was about to fall on her face. It was just then that Alex realized that they were still holding hands. _"Oh my god, I can't believe we held hands for that long. I didn't even notice, it just felt so comfortable...and right."_

Marissa noticed too, and shook her head. _"My god what is going on. Ugh!_" She thought, frustrated about the whole situation. She didn't know what to do about the way she was feeling, and she assumed that she was just thinking about things too much.

"You guys!!!!" Katie yelled. "Mark, just left. Somethin bout goin to work, or, wait, did he say, hmm," Katie stuttered on and put a finger to her chin as if she wasn't thinking about something. "I don't know, I wasn't really listening. Aannnyyywwwaayy!" she slurred, "I need somewhere to crash tonight. I don't want to go back to my house. I'll be all on my own!" she yelled out dramatically, acting as if she were about to cry.

"It's ok Kate, we can all go back to my place after the show. You can just spend the night there. We can have one big sleepover!" Alex told Katie, knowing that that would cheer her right up.

"Really?? I haven't done that in for-ever!!! It's going to be sooo much fuun! We should, like, go rent movies and stuff and then go to the store and get some ice cream, oh! Oh! And chocolate syrup, and popcorn!" She rambled on.

"Yeah, we'll do that!" Alex said in a fake cheery voice. She was pretty much just amusing her now.

"Yessss," Katie said as she reached her arm into the air, palm facing up, clenched her fist together, and pulled her elbow back towards her body. "I'm going to go and tell everyone else!" She then stumbled away towards the table.

"So, what do you say? Do you think that you and Summer would want to come back to mine and Ashley's place tonight and hang?" Alex asked, turning to Marissa. "Maybe we could catch up? It's still pretty early." Alex waited anxiously for Marissa's answer. She hoped that Marissa wouldn't say no.

"Yeah, that sounds really good. I'll ask Summer, but I'm sure she won't have a problem with it. It seems like she's getting along really well with everybody," Marissa said and motioned to Summer who was talking to Ashley at the bar.

"Yeah, she and Ashley seemed to have hit it off." Alex agreed. But when Marissa raised an eyebrow at her, she corrected herself, "I meant as friends. Summer is probably, what, engaged to Seth by now?" Alex asked.

"Actually, no." Marissa told her. "The two broke up after high school. Seth decided to stay in California, and by that time Summer had her heart set on moving out West. So she went to Brown, he went to Berkeley, and that was it. They still talk though, they're really good friends. But Seth has a girlfriend right now. They've been going out for about seven months now, or something like that." Marissa filled Alex in.

"Oh, wow. Didn't expect that one," Alex replied with a surprised look on her face. "A lot really has changed, huh?" she asked.

"You have no idea," Marissa told her with a smirk.

Alex only smiled back at Marissa.

The two continued to watch the show, which ended about ten minutes afterwards. They then found the rest of the group, which by this time, was only Ashley, Summer, Peyton, and a nearly passed out Katie. They rest of the group had left.

"So, how does everyone feel about heading to the Kelly residence for the after party?" Alex laughed at her lame use of words.

Marissa looked to Summer, who raised her eyebrows at the taller girl. Marissa knew what she was thinking, "_Do you want to?"_ And Marissa smiled at Summer, giving her a slight nod.

"Sounds like a plan," Summer said.

"Yeah.….pppaaarrr-ttaaayy!" Katie slurred out.

"I'm game," Peyton told her.

"Ok then. Everybody get your stuff. We can just walk to the apartment. It's only a few blocks away." Alex ordered.

"Wait wait wait.…." Katie said as she stood up quickly, and soon sat back down once she realized how bad of an idea that was. She was already getting dizzy. "Walk? I tooottaally can't walk right now. I think I might have drank just a little bit too much," she said while holding her pointer finger and thumb about a centimeter apart, showing how much she had had.

"You don't say," Peyton chirped in.

"It's ok, we'll help you. Won't we Peyton?" Alex asked, glaring at Peyton while giving her a look that said "_You're not helping"_

"Why do I have to help?" Peyton whined.

"Because. You just do," she said, while looking around at the other girls. They weren't exactly the strongest people.

"Ok, ok. Come on Kate." Peyton told her while putting Kate's arm around her neck.

Eventually, they all arrived at Alex and Ashley's place. When they finally reached their floor, Marissa and Summer walked out of the elevator and looked around in amazement.

"Holy shit! This place is huge!!" Summer blurted out.

"Yeah it is," Marissa agreed. "It is amazing."

"Thank you," Alex told them after her and Peyton successfully got Katie to the couch to lay down.

Marissa looked around at the place one again. It really was beautiful. It took up the top two floors at a very fancy high rise building. It was decorated very modern and contemporary, but with a funky edge to it. All of the electronics by the tv were as high tech as you could get. The apartment truly represented Alex, and when Marissa walked to the end of one of the hallways she walked into a room that had a huge tv in it with recliners sitting in front of it. Surround sound speakers lined the whole room, and there was a huge shelf with all of Alex and Ashley's cd's and records on it. On the walls were posters of the two's favorite bands.

"I really like this room," Marissa told Alex who walked in behind her.

"I figured you would," Alex told her. She knew that her and Marissa shared the same taste in music, so it was to be expected.

Marissa turned around and smiled at Alex who only stood about a foot away. They stared at each other for a while, and when Marissa finally opened her mouth to say something, she was interrupted by Ashley who came walking into the room.

"Hey, Dumb and Dumber just came on. You guys want to come and watch?" she asked the two.

"Yeah, sure." Alex told her, turning around.

"Yeah," Marissa agreed and started to follow Alex out into the main room where all of the others were. Ashley hopped onto the couch with Summer and a passed out Katie. Peyton was sitting in the chair beside the couch, so that left only the love seat for Alex and Marissa to sit on. (no pun intended) The two glanced at each other, and at the same time they sat down. Alex reached over Marissa to grab the blanket on the armrest, and both of them were filled with a sense of déjà vu. Each of them giggled as Alex spread the blanket out for both of them. They then sat there with each other, content.

By the time the movie was over, Marissa had fallen asleep with her head on Alex's shoulder and Alex had her head resting on Marissa's, asleep also.

"Hey you two, wake up," Ashley whispered beside them. But neither of them budged. "Hello? Wake up!" She said in a normal voice.

Summer walked over to them and smirked at Ashley. "WAKE UP!!!!!' she yelled.

Both Alex and Marissa jolted up, which caused them to hit their heads together.

"Ouch" Alex whined.

"Yeah, what the fuck Sum?" Marissa asked.

"Sorry, you guys weren't waking up. I had no other choice," Summer told them.

Ashley laughed. "The movie is over and we figured that the two of you would be complaining in the morning if you slept there all night, so we thought we would be nice and wake your asses up."

"Gee thanks," Alex told her.

"No prob. Ok, so. Peyton is asleep in the guest room, and Summer said that she wouldn't mind rooming with me tonight since Katie pretty much kick us off of the couch. So yeah, I guess that means Marissa is stuck with you," she told Alex. Then she turned to Marissa, "Sorry. She's a total cover-hog and she kicks really bad in her sleep." she told her.

"Yeah, I know." Marissa replied. She then closed her eyes when she realized what she said. _"Crap, I'm such an idiot. I doubt Ashley even knows about us," _she thought. _"Am I really going to sleep in the same bed with Alex? Oh god, this should be interesting. Well, I don't even know if she wants me to sleep in the same bed as her. She will probably feel weird about it," _Marissa babbled to herself.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about you two." Ashley said. Actually she didn't forget, but she thought it would be fun to watch the two squirm. Her and Summer talked about this while the other two slept and agreed that they needed to help get them back together. And this was step one. But things aren't always as easy as they seem.

Alex glared at her sister. But she had to admit that she was glad Marissa was going to be sharing a bed with her.

"Anyways!" Summer said. "I'm really tired, so, want to go ahead and go to bed?" she asked, turning to Ashley.

"Yeah, sure. Come on." Ashley replied while she started walking towards her bedroom. "Good night you guys!"

"Night," They both replied. Once Ashley and Summer were out of the room, Alex turned to Marissa.

"You ready to go to sleep?" she asked her.

"Yeah, do you mind? Like, you know, me sleeping with you? I mean, not sleeping with you, but, like…" Marissa continued, her face growing darker every second.

"I know what you mean," Alex laughed. _"She is so cute when she gets embarrassed. Shit, stop thinking like that Alex!" _she battled with herself. "But no, I don't mind. Don't worry about it. Come on," she told her while getting up and walking towards her room.

Marissa could only follow. Her nerves were starting to get the best of her. When she walked into Alex's room, she was once again stunned. It too was beautiful. The walls were painted a deep red color, and all of the furniture was black or white, but it still seemed very 'Alex'.

"Ok so, you can just borrow something of mine to sleep in if you want," Alex told Marissa. She too was starting to get nervous.

"Yeah, that'd be good. Thanks." Marissa told her. Alex handed her a pair of cotton shorts and a tank top.

"Is that ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, perfect, I'm just going to go and change in here," Marissa told her, motioning to the bathroom.

"K," Alex replied. Once Marissa was in the bathroom, Alex got her some clothes to change into. She put on a pair of shorts similar to Marissa's, and as she was finishing putting her tank top on, she heard the bathroom door open.

"Oh, sorry. I should have knocked," Marissa told her and putting her hand up to shield her eyes. She didn't actually see anything other than Alex's stomach, but she thought it would be rude to keep staring. _"I wish I would have seen more than her stomach.…" _she thought.

"It's ok. Nothing you haven't seen before right?" Alex told her laughing.

"Yeah," Marissa shyly laughed.

Once Alex was ready, or, unready.…she pulled the covers down and scooted into her bed and patted the space next to her for Marissa to get in. Marissa slid into the bed also, and made sure not to get too close to Alex, for she feared she would lose control. But apparently Alex had other ideas. She leaned over to Marissa and kissed her on the cheek.

"Night," she whispered.

"Good night," Marissa replied shakily. Alex then reached over to the table beside her and turned off the lamp, making the room dark. She laid down to where she was facing Marissa and could feel the other girls breath. _"Oh god, I'm never going to be able to fall asleep. I've dreamt about being this close to her for years, and now that I finally am, I don't know what to do. But everything will work itself out," _Alex told herself as she started to get sleepy.

Marissa was having these same thoughts but soon relaxed once she felt Alex's leg rest against her own. _"God have I missed this. Ok, I'm just going to stop worrying, for real this time. And I'm going to sleep," _And pretty soon, she did fall asleep.

**Ok, so that was it. I'm sorry if it sucked once again. But please review and tell me how you felt about it. If you would like to make suggestions, feel free to do so. And to those of you silent readers, please review. It really means so much to know what you guys think. And also to those of you who add me to your story alert but don't review. Lol. I will be your bestest friend if you review. Ha.**

**By the way, I'm usually online, so if any of you want to chat, hit me up on aim- Mandergurl11.**

**I love you guys!**

**-----Manda. **


	6. AN

-1**A/N--Ok, I just wanted to thank all of you guys for the reviews. And I have to tell you that I'm going to be going out of town for a week, and I won't be able to post. I am terribly sorry. **

**And I need help on something.**

**You see, I read an A/M story a while back, and I loved it. The other day, I started thinking about it and I was going to look it up and read it again...but I couldn't find it.**

**I have no idea what the name of the story is, but I've looked at every single story that has A & M as the main characters or whatever, and I can't find it. And it's driving me crazy!!**

**Here's the summary, the best that I can remember:::::: Marissa moved to NY and worked for a magazine I think, and one day she saw Alex. (Alex is a brunette in this story, if that helps any) Turns out, Alex was engaged and everything, to a guy. But A/M started hanging out a lot, and I think that eventually Alex's fiancé told her that she should be with Marissa. So they got together and stuff. **

**Alex owned a restaurant called _Tide Just Turned_.**

**A/M went skating and I think one of them hurt their ankle.**

**And I know that the ending was when Alex said that she had to take Marissa somewhere, and I don't want to say anything else because if I ever find out what the name of this fic is then I want all of you to read it. It's really good. **

**So PLEASE! If you can help me out, please do. **

**Hopefully it will give me some inspiration for the next chapter.**


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